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A nine-year-old girl who was digging in a large sand hole on an Oregon beach suffocated and died after the sand caved in around her and other beachgoers were unable to dig her out in time, police said on Saturday.

The girl, identified as Isabel Grace Franks, was playing Friday evening on the beach in Lincoln City, about 80 miles southwest of Portland, when she was buried in a hole between 2 and 4 feet deep, the Lincoln City police said.

The girl was under the sand for between five and seven minutes before she was pulled out, Lincoln City Police Sgt. Randy Weaver said.

The girl, who was visiting Lincoln City with her parents from Sandy, Ore., was unconscious and not breathing when she was pulled out from the collapsed sand hole. She was taken to a hospital in Lincoln City, where she was unable to be revived, the Lincoln City Police Department said in a statement.

"When you dig in the sand it keeps falling back in on itself, so it was extremely difficult to get her out," Weaver said. "It was a tragic event."